Nancy Kreiner didn’t want to be bitter. Law enforcement has a very difficult job, she said, and they need support.

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In an interview, Nancy Kreiner talks about the mission of the William Burnham Jr. Death Scene Awareness Project. The initiative strives to emphasize that protocol is very important, she said, and that it should be followed at every scene, every time. "I have made my life’s mission to focus on doing good," Kreiner said.(Photo: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record)

On June 25, 2006, Kreiner’s son, William “BJ” Burnham Jr., was beaten to death inside his home in Carroll Township. He was 27. Police charged a man with first-degree murder and related offenses, but a jury found him not guilty at trial.

Blood evidence, she said, had been mishandled in the case. It couldn’t effectively be used at trial.

Following the acquittal, Kreiner has made it her life’s mission to focus on doing something positive out of something negative.

She started the William Burnham Jr. Death Scene Awareness Project, which has since helped train more than 1,800 law enforcement officers in the United States about the importance of following protocol every time and the proper preservation and management of their death scenes. The initiative is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

“Every law enforcement officer, and every coroner, wants to do a really good job. Their heart is into doing a really good job. And they do,” Kreiner said in an interview at her office in Jackson Township. “But it’s always good to be reminded.”

'I really care about all the officers'

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Nancy Kreiner holds up a poster for the William Burnham Jr. Death Scene Awareness Project. “Every law enforcement officer, and every coroner, wants to do a really good job. Their heart is into doing a really good job. And they do,” Kreiner said. “But it’s always good to be reminded.”(Photo: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record)

In the beginning, Kreiner, who’s a health insurance broker, said she didn’t know anything about the field of death investigation. But she felt that she wanted to do something to protect the scene.

So Kreiner started reaching out to speakers. Her attorney, William Tully, helped and encouraged her. Today, the William Burnham Jr. Death Scene Awareness Project is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

Early on, she said, Susquehanna Township Director of Public Safety Rob Martin allowed her to speak in front of the Dauphin County Chiefs of Police Association about the vision.

When she was getting ready to leave, a man whom she’d never met introduced himself. That man was Chip Brown, then the law enforcement coordinator for the Middle Atlantic-Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network, or MAGLOCLEN, who would later travel all over southcentral Pennsylvania, helping create a bridge and encouraging people to come to the project's training.

The William Burnham Jr. Death Scene Awareness Project holds an annual symposium for about 200 local, state and federal law enforcement officers. Topics have ranged from solving the forgotten murders to interrogation skills. The speakers, she said, are experts in their fields and believe in the importance of the mission.

For the first conference, Kreiner said she was hoping that 50 people would turn out. More than 200 attended. They had to get rid of the tables in the room.

The conference is different because it’s so inexpensive. Anyone who wants to learn, should be able to learn, Kreiner said.

No one, she said, makes any money. Kreiner doesn’t draw a salary. The speakers volunteer their time.

“I really care about all the officers that come,” Kreiner said. “We treat them like family. We just do. We think they’re awesome.”

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To honor the memory of her son, Nancy Kreiner founded the William Burnham Jr. Death Scene Awareness Project, which has since helped train more than 1,800 law enforcement officers in the United States.(Photo: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record)

Lancaster County cold case likely 'wouldn't have been solved'

In 2016, Lancaster County Chief County Detective Kent Switzer attended the project’s roundtable about cold case investigations. He got information there about an upcoming training, which is where detectives were exposed to Parabon NanoLabs.

The DNA technology company, he said, eventually introduced them to genetic genealogy. That’s what led to the break in the cold case homicide of Christy Mirack, a teacher who was found dead in her home in East Lampeter Township on Dec. 21, 1992.

Michael Maloney, a retired special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and senior instructor for death investigations and sex crimes at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, led a three-day training — two days of classroom instruction, one day of practical experience — on death scene preservation and management for the project in 2013.

Maloney said he normally charges between $600 to $900 for the program. The project was able to offer it for $185 per participant.

During the training, Maloney said he brought lifelike mannequins and set up a series of scenarios including a natural death, suicide and homicide inside hotel rooms for law enforcement to process. He also dug a shallow grave in a field and taught them how to properly excavate a skeleton.

Kreiner, he said, is a crusader. She convinced a business to allow her to have 30 police cars and crime scene tape in the parking lot. She’s a compelling speaker with a very compelling story.

“I thought, you know, here’s a mom, instead of blaming, instead of throwing darts, instead of just tucking into a ball and hiding from the world, said, ‘What can I do positive about that tragedy that’s faced our family?’” he said.

Kreiner is helping law enforcement take a step back and realize that they have somebody’s life in their hands when they’re at these crime scenes, said Joe Kennedy, a retired NCIS special agent who was the primary architect and first program manager for the NCIS Cold Case Homicide Unit.

Kennedy said he doesn’t know anyone who’s doing that from a civilian standpoint. He said he’s on the road for 260 days per year, but she made enough of an impression on him that he had to teach about solving cold cases for the project.

“She is trying to make a difference in the world,” Kennedy said. “A lot of people just live in the world.”

Pedro Diaz, 25, of York, arrested for persons not to possess a firearm, possession of a firearm with an altered or obliterated serial number, receiving stolen property and possession of a firearm without a license. Submitted